Death Row Inmate Loses Federal Appeal

HOUSTON (AP) — A North Texas man facing execution in less than two weeks for the fatal shootings of four men more than 30 years ago has lost a federal court appeal.

Attorneys for 67-year-old Lester Bower argued to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of

Appeals that the Grayson County jury that sent him to death row in 1984 didn't have the opportunity to fully consider evidence that Bower had no previous record before he was arrested for the four slayings at a hangar on a Sherman-area ranch.

The 5th Circuit late Thursday refused his appeal and refused to stop his scheduled June 3 lethal injection.

Bower long has maintained he's innocent of the October 1983 shootings. Parts of a missing aircraft stored at the hangar later were found at Bower's Arlington home.